The Kite Runner By Khaled Hossieni

Khaled Hosseini's emotionally powerful debut novel The Kite Runner fulfills the promise of fiction. Friendship, loyalty, history of a nation (Afghanistan) is the theme and the author is brutally honest. Betrayal is a very strong guilt that most of us suffer at one point of time. As the author says we are not man if we can’t stand up for ourselves. Does forgiveness ends the guilt? No. But grace of acceptance does, in turn leads to redemption. But not many get chance for redemption. Once a coward, always he is. The narration is through Amir an upper class pastun who enjoys the luxury of education, material comfort and a constant playmate, the son of his father's longtime Hazara servant, Ali. Hassan is his name. Hassan’s sacrificial love is the highlight of the story. I will never forget the dialogue when he replies to Amir “ a thousand times and over for you”. Why in my life don’t I have someone who can love as I am, with my faults? Neither boy has a mother and they had a same woman who gave they milk which makes them brother. They spend their boyhoods roaming the streets of Kabul together, hitting rear of all animals with sling stone, climbing trees, seeing western movies multiple times, just lying on the ground , silence as companion as each understands other without a word. Amir, though, continually uses his superior position to taunt hassan and then gives toys to forget his guilt. Author has captured this childhood friendship beautifully. Hassan has a doting father who shows affection openly, but Amir has to openly do something to get his father’s attraction, cause he is so unlike his father. Yearning for love of the one we love is the worst thing that can happen to a human. He gets a chance during the famous kite festival and wins it. But tragedy strikes. Hassan once stood up to pastun when they tried to abuse Amir. The person who runs down the last kite is called Kite Runner. Hassan was the best. On that fateful day, Amir did nothing to help his hassan when he was being physically abused by fellow pastun. He dared not, as he might get hurt too. Self-preservation! From then he moves in the world of guilt. As the war descends on afganistan, Amir jan and his dad move to America. Both father and son are having internal struggle of the betrayal they have committed. Do they get redemption? Read the book to know.